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No, not the fish! I am referring to Sen. Richard Gordon?s ?that brave Tausug Muslim warrior that Cebuanos should be proud of? opening statement at last Friday?s forum with the presidential candidates at the jampacked Cebu International Convention Center.
Eloquent and ebullient as ever, Dick Gordon?s claims-making struck a raw nerve in me. Does the good senator really believe this one version of Lapu-lapu?s lineage as Tausug and Muslim? And if so, should every Sugbuanon be proud that it took someone born in faraway Sulu and ruling an enclave in Mactan to fight for them in the epic battle that is forever celebrated every April 27th?
Where does this claim come from? Antonio de Pigafetta, Magellan?s chronicler provides a brief but quite graphic account of this dawn battle that pitted 1,500 of Lapu-lapu?s men (probably a bloated number as humans are wont to do) with 51 of them, including Pigafetta himself. Nowhere in this account or in the previous days? reports does Pigafetta indicate that there was a Tausug or Muslim chief in the island of Mactan. Remember, he does mention the presence of Moro traders as well as a small boat that had docked three days earlier than them from Ciama (Siam or present-day Thailand). He even writes of the baptism of a Moro merchant who was in Humabon?s ?Sugbo? at the time.
I have nothing against Tausugs nor Muslims, make no mistake. My beef is that Philippine history is marred by so much claims-making such that it problematizes the proper appreciation of history even as it tells us so much of the dismal level of the archival and historical research in this country. True, there is a claim coming from a biased source, an oral tradition allegedly from Sulu that emerged only in the 17th century, some 150 or so years after the fact. This tradition claims that Lapu-lapu is none other than Kalipulaku or Caliph Pulako, indicating that he had a caliphate and was a Muslim teacher. An ex post facto evidence cannot, of course, assail the eyewitness account of Pigafetta.
Why Pigafetta or Rajah Zola (the other chieftain of Mactan who complained to Magellan?s men about the belligerency of Lapu-lapu) did not mention that he was Moro or Muslim speaks volumes about Lapu-lapu?s non-Muslim faith. Anyone who has read the three versions of Pigafetta?s account of Magellan?s voyage will surely appreciate the fact the Pigafetta was no stranger to seeing Moros in Humabon?s court, a mention of which automatically implies that Humabon and his kin were not. For why mention people of a specific faith (and not lineage) if one is trying to emphasize an important and obvious difference?
And so therefore what are we to make of Sen. Gordon?s claims-making? It was probably not intended as an insult to Cebuanos inasmuch as I agree 100 percent that Dick Gordon did so much during his term as tourism secretary to popularize Cebu to the world as an important destination. (Of course, it took Gov. Gwen Garcia?s ?Suroy-suroy Sugbo? to expand the horizons of Cebu?s tourism to the towns and beyond its beaches.) I think the more significant aspect of Sen. Gordon?s claim is that it should bring to the fore an honest and well-meaning debate about Lapu-Lapu and what he really represents to Cebuanos and perhaps put an end to all this talk of Cebu and the Visayas as already Islamized when the Spaniards arrived.
That is not, of course, what Sen. Gordon said in his opening statement. But by claiming Lapu-Lapu as Tausug and Muslim, the good senator may have inadvertently caused those who heard him to hint that perhaps Islam had indeed been the religion of the people in this region. That, my dears, is not the case of course. A simple reading of Pigafetta?s chronicles, for one, will tell us that Humabon?s ?Sugbo? settlement had temples (more like shrines) with wooden idols located near the shorelines and that they were trading their gold and pigs for Spanish iron. Those idols and those dreadful pigs are a no-no to Islam, a religion that disallows any image of Allah or God and the Prophet, Mohammed and forbids the eating of pork, much less raising them in your backyard! Now, given the short distance to Mactan, wouldn?t a Muslim Lapu-Lapu have also endeavored to convert a Hindu-influenced heathen like Humabon?
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My friend Louie Nacorda?s successful and splendid curation of precious (perhaps even miraculous) versions of the Sto. Niño will end on Sunday, January 31 at the SM Art Center on the third floor. There is still time to view, to pray and to appreciate these works of art and images of faith. I urge everyone to drop by and be awed! Congratulations, Louie!
